Ritchie Gives Us A Reality Check

Last updated : 20 April 2018 By Footy Mad - Editor

Ritchie left Bournemouth with a “heavy heart” two years ago to join Newcastle in the Championship.

The winger, like Rafa Benitez, saw the “potential” at United,” said Ritchie.

“I always hoped I would be a part of something like this at Newcastle. When I left Bournemouth, I left with a heavy heart because it was a fantastic spell in my career and I absolutely loved it down there. But this was an opportunity to come to a massive football club with great potential, and I wanted to be a part of that.

Newcastle could climb another place up the table with a win over Everton at Goodison Park on Monday night. And Ritchie is determined that United press on.

“I don’t want to get carried away because by no means have we achieved anything yet,” said the 28-year-old.

“We know that. We’ve had a good run, but it’s only about a month ago that we were playing Manchester United and staring at the bottom three.

“Had we not won that game, we might have been in a different fight.

“But we did that win that game and we’ve kicked on since then. We’ve had some good results and it feels like things are moving the right way.

“We have to keep our feet on the ground though. We’ve achieved nothing yet, and we have to keep going with the mentality and philosophy that we’ve had all season.

“If we do that, then yes, there’s a great opportunity to build and hopefully push on in the right direction.

“But we’ve been on the right side of a lot of one-goal margins this season, and that can quite easily turn. You see in the Premier League, it’s so tight every week.

“It’s all about mentality. We give ourselves the opportunity to win games or take points from games.

“That’s down to our work ethic, I think. On and off the ball, everyone’s working so hard.”